Another "best group" from Barnes

[ligonierbill]

I've posted before that the Barnes TTSX has yielded my best groups in several rifles. But, my 6.5x55 M70 was not among them. Best I got was 2". I decided to give it another try in a different rifle (FN Mauser rebarreled with a Brownell's DIY bbl), different powder (VV N560), and a little longer COL (2.985).

I won't share the powder charges because I used QL...and I don't want to spoil your workup fun. In any case, my DIY rebarrel shot 1 1/8" center-to-center. Working up a grain at a time, the first set was not good, the next very good, next poor, and max load excellent. FWIW, QL predicted my average velocity within 1 fps. A little luck there, but that's what I got.

I need to try this load in the Winchester.

 

[std7mag]

So you changed both seating depth, and powder charge.
And got different results.
But from a different rifle.

Hence unfortunately you proved nothing for the rifle you were having issues with.

I do ladder test for powder charge first, looking for smallest change vertically. Then change seating depths for group size.
I also tune my receiver.

Best of luck to you.

BTW, i've found QL to be within 25 fps for me usually. But not always.

 

[ligonierbill]

I should have written better; too focused on a good result. The Winchester puts 140 SGK into an inch all day, so when it didn't do as well with TTSX loaded to Barnes' tested COL I just moved on. The new kid is this old Mauser that I rebarreled. When I finished the short chamber, I tried to keep it to minimum. The reamer I rented stated it was SAAMI min, and I stopped cutting as soon as the bolt closed on the 'Go' gauge. Initial testing with loads I'd worked for the M70 showed higher velocity than the extra 2" barrel length should account for, and some of them showed pressure signs. So I now work up in the old Mauser first. With TTSX in the FN, my old standby Re-22 gave a high Std, like 64, and a poor group. So I went to VihtaVouri, and yeah, I changed the COL at the same time. Hey, it worked. First group I'm really happy with from that FN.

So far my "best group" list for Barnes is:
80 TTSX .243 Ruger American 1"
100 TTSX .257 Roberts Shaw barreled Mauser 1 3/8"
210 TTSX .338 WM Savage 116 1"

I should note that I'm still working on the 'Bob', and 117 Sierras shoot just about as well. The 338 shoots most anything into <1 1/2", including 225 TTSX.

I am still working 139 LRX in 7 mag. My Rem 700 put 3 into 1/2", but the other 2 went off an inch in different directions. I will run another series varying COL. This rifle shoots 160 Accubonds and SGK into an inch.

In 9.3x62, 250 and 286 TTSX go 1 1/2", but other conventional bullets do 1". I have yet to find a real accurate 8x57 (all original barrels so far), but I plan to have Shaw rebarrel my latest acquisition and try some 160 TTSX.

Sorry for the ramble. Simple points: I got a good group from a Brownell's DIY barrel, and I'm really warming up to Barnes copper bullets.

 

[Slamfire]

I have a factory 6.5 X 55 M70 and I had to bed the action and free float the barrel to get best accuracy.

This is my best 300 yard ten shot group, and it is not MOA or sub MOA.

These are closer to two MOA

I am of the opinion that lightweight sporting rifles are doing well to shoot 1 MOA. Now you have legions of idiots who claim half MOA lever actions based on five shot groups, but demand they produce a half MOA 20 shot group, all you will get them from is venom because they really don't have a half MOA lever action. They just shot enough rounds to produce a random five shot group that happened to be sub MOA. Just read an article by an in print gun writer about the vastly improved accuracy of Marlin lever actions. The guy is a shill, shilling for Remington, and he fired three shot groups which don't prove anything about inherent accuracy. I think it was the same shill who was shooting cast bullets in his lever action and claimed half MOA accuracy out of a Marlin 30-30, based on his three shot groups. The shame of it, people read this stuff and don't realize that the articles they read are simply advertising. The gun writer gets $400 to write an article, to convince thousands of you, to buy a $800 rifle.

There are lots of sub MOA three shot and five shot groups in these targets, but guess what, the load nor the rifle is sub MOA

Now heavy barrel target rifles, they will shoot a lot tighter than a sporting rifle. As I recall, the weight limit for the 2 mile group was 50 lbs, and the rifle could not be a 50 cal. Those sort of rifles should shoot sub MOA, or you wasted four grand in a custom rifle and scope, but hunting rifles, the more you shoot them, the more you are going to find that the typical sub MOA stuff you read on the web, is by shooters who once in a while create a sub MOA group, but claim they do it all the time.

Consistency is hard.

 

[ligonierbill]

Good shooting. I haven't done a thing to my Winchester. I fool with the Mausers, and truth be told I usually carry a "plastic fantastic" in the woods.